Chinese Politburo Standing Committee member Wang Yang speaks during an event to commemorate the 40th anniversary of the “Message to Compatriots in Taiwan”. Picture: REUTERS/Mark Schiefelbein/Pool

The issue of unification between China and Taiwan should not be left for future generations to deal with, Chinese president Xi Jinping has said.

He also said that China reserves the right to use force to bring Taiwan under its control but will strive to achieve peaceful “reunification” with the self-ruled island that has a bright future under any future Chinese rule, President Xi Jinping said on Wednesday.

No one or no party can stop the trend toward unification, the Chinese leader said in a speech devoted to Taiwan, calling independence for the self-governing island against history and a dead-end.

“We are willing to create a vast space for peaceful unification, but we will never leave any room for any sort of Taiwan independence separatist activities,” he said.

Taiwan and China split in a civil war that brought the Communists to power in China in 1949.

The rival Nationalists set up their own government on the island about 160 kilometres (100 miles) off the Chinese mainland.

Mr Xi proposed talks between the two sides to work out “a systematic arrangement for the peaceful development of the cross-strait relationship”.

While the president said that people on both sides want peaceful reunification, it is unclear how his message will be received on the other side of the Taiwan Strait.

Taiwan’s president Tsai Ing-wen said on Tuesday that its people want to maintain their self-rule and autonomy.

Mr Xi pledged that unification would be under a one-country, two-system framework that would respect the Taiwanese social system and way of life and guarantee their property rights, religious beliefs and other rights.

“The political disputes that have existed for a long time … affect the healthy and continuous development of the cross-strait relationship and cannot be passed from generation to generation,” he said.